Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1887-01-21
Chinese FnrminR,

In passing through the silk growing dis
trict which begins very near to Shanghai
and extends all round to the city of Hang
chow, | could but be struck indeed with the
comfort which prevailed everywhere. The
farm houses of China, or at any rate in
that part of China, were models of what
farm houses should be. | had expected to
see squaor and wretchedness. and was i'll
prepared for what | really beheld Ex-
ceedingly good gardening | was of course
prepared for for Chinese gardening is sy-
nonymous with everything that is neat and
productive But the orchards and mulberry
trees all beautifully trimmed, with the
brick built and excellent houses half hidden
away in them. certainly astonished me.
CHANGED to land from my house-boat fire.
quently in order to shoot woodcock, for it
was winter time when passed through the
district. To get these birds it was necessa-
~ to scramble over the fields and through
the mulberry orchards of the district, and
| was simply amazed to see how beautifully
the groves of trees were kept. Under
meath great quantities of vegetables were
grown, not foot of earth appeared to be
wasted, and every inch was in the most SUI
peru order. Had the whole country been
vast garden, it could not have been better
tended and cared for There were not
hereabouts any hedges or walls, the fields
were divided from each other by deep
dykes, which served the double purpose of
marking out the land and irrigating or
draining, as the case might be, the diacent
soil The trees, of which there were myri-
ads were all planted with mathematical
exactness and in the greatest order, unlike
the trees in many English orchards, which
seem to have been stuck into the ground
with a view of wasting as much space as
| possible. And as for the tops of the trees,
| they had all been carefully trimmed to the
same pattern, every little bough having
| been inspected and cut as circumstances
CHANGED to require. | never saw anything
half so orderly in any country in the world
/ for these were no ornamental gardens which
| was going through. but mulberry orchards
extending over hundreds of square miles of
country and owned by thousands of differ
ent husbandmen Inside the house, again
| was surprised Mt the comfort which pre-
vailed. In each one there were at least two
rooms set apart for the silk-worms, anC
these We're kept scrupulously clean. The
other rooms of the house were well furnish
ed, comfortable and warm-in every cast
very clean also; and l did not see in any
country house any of the squalor or misery
one sees in many English, Scotch. and es
pecially Irish districts.
1t does not always do to take the dress o
any Chinaman as an index to the wealth h,
may possess. He may have many reason
among them being a dread of attracting
the attention of some rapacious mandarin
for not showing more richness of attir
than is absolutely necessary and he ma,
prefer to 90 about in warm rags than rul
the risk of being squeezed" by the loca
officials so that many traveller may mis-
take this intentional poverty of attire fo
want of money. | had pointed out to III
in Canton one day, for example, particu
larly woe-hegone looking Chinaman goin
up the street, The gentleman who wa
with me, and who was resident ON the ad
: jacent island of Shamieu, said, Poor
wish | was as rich as that Chinaman Why
half the European houses here are in hi
debt but if he showed this by his dress tn
+ mandarin here would soon borrow a trif
i of him. London Mornihg Post.